Gears of War: Judgment pass includes permanent double XP

$20 pass includes six multiplayer maps, two new modes, nine "exclusive" unlocks, and permanent multiplayer boost.

Gamers who spend $20 on the Gears of War: Judgment VIP Season Pass will receive a permanent double XP boost for multiplayer, Epic Games announced today. Buying the pass is the only way to achieve the experience multiplier, the company said.

In addition, the Season Pass for Gears of War: Judgment includes six multiplayer maps, two new game modes, and nine "exclusive" unlocks. Players who buy the pass will receive early access to multiplayer maps and also five weapon skins and four armor skins.

Epic Games announced earlier today that men's magazine Maxim is sponsoring the release of Gears of War: Judgment maps Capitol and Haven, as well as the Execution game mode. These offerings will be made available as free downloads on April 2.

Explaining the partnership with Maxim, an Epic Games representative told GameSpot that the deal allowed the developer to release the maps and mode for free. No Maxim-branded content will be found in the game itself, the company said.

Gears of War: Judgment is due out exclusively on Xbox 360 March 19, 2013 and is the first entry in the series since 2011's trilogy-capping Gears of War 3.

Developed by Epic Games in conjunction with Bulletstorm studio People Can Fly, the project focuses on series soldier Damon Baird and will not use the Kinect.

At least Nintendo wasn´t releasing DLCs on their games, they were already full, and instead of dlcs, they were unlockable stuff... Probably that was because they couldn´t even put people to buy dlcs on the wii xD, but i hope they don´t do the same like this on the Wii U... just, updates and stuff like that.

I do not feel sorry for all the mindless sheep that decide...erm...comply with nickle and diming techniques like this. Games are already $60 a pop and RISING! DLC has gone from being free to as much as $15 to $20 for a whopping 3-5 MAPS! Execution mode has been included for free with the Gears games since the first one came out 7 YEARS AGO! Weapon skins? Double XP? Those were FREE as REWARDS for gamers for completing challenges, or in the case of double XP, bonuses for fans that played at certain times, like a particular weekend or playing in a tournament playlist. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you people? Don't you realize that they would stop these ridiculous microtransactions if people like you DID NOT BUY THEM?!

You fucking companies and your DLC and especially day one DLC's can all rot in hell. I'm not paying extra for an in game advantage. Your previous games were riddled with bugs and hosting advantages, and this is a marketing scheme that is going to ruin the game even more. This is almost as bad as The War Z's pay real money to respawn faster.

I don't agree with the whole "double exp" concept of it, but if you know for sure you want to buy all the DLC for Judgement, then all this does is save you money. It's pathetic that they are trying to bait in people to buy it with double exp, but at the end of the day there is no in-game disadvantage to not buying the pass, so it's still good business for consumers who know what they're buying

As much as I hate it, all of the big games now have these season passes regardless of the platform. Uncharted 3 has one, Halo 4 has one. Call of Duty has one. Borderlands 2 has one. Tomb raider and Bioshock Infinate are going to have one. It is a sad state of affairs, but I think that it is a permanent part of the industry now that it has proven successful. I think that in the end though, it is going to make people be much more selective about the games that they buy and might eventually make the industry "lose" money. By charging an extra 20 dollars post release, it will lead some people to not making the original 60 dollar investment. However, I am sure that they have already taken this into account and have come to the conclusion that they will still make more money this way.

Great, I'll have double XP for a year until the next game comes out and I'll have to buy it again. No thanks, no one should buy season passes for GOW, they're just trying to trick you into playing terrible rehashes from previous games like COD.

"Buying the pass is the only way to achieve the experience multiplier" huh? Well im not getting the pass and im really to much of a completionist when it comes to games, so i most likely will not be getting the game either.

For DLC we are to blame the gamers ! The first DLC's were only a test to see if people like them ! And people bought them and that is why there are still here ! ALL of you on this website including me , we all have bought DLC for a game on xbox , play station , PC ! We are all to blame ! my advice now just stop purchasing DLC ! That is all we can do !

The company that used to be the champion of free content and excellent post-launch support and patching is now leading the charge with overpriced disc-locked content gouging the customer at every opportunity with piss-poor post-launch support and QA. Epic, you are pathetic.

Later companies will announce a new payment mode where if you pay $100 during an online match you will win the match instantly. You may laugh but hell 7 years ago news like this would have been unbelievable.

I'm glad I don't waste my time and money on Xbox Live, with all the nonsense going on over the last generation and all. The only reason Xbox live still costs money is because all the sheep that have been herded up still pay for it. There are better, freer communities and services out there than the xbox live cash grab.

Ah... those greedy, greedy bastards. They just want more and more. I'm talking about the gamers that will buy this for more and more XP. The developer is just offering, if no gamer is greedy, they won't sell a single one.

This is a rather sobering article to "have" to read, and after spending a good while thinking of how I was going to comment - all I have to say is this: at the end of the day, your amount of XP gain, your level, by itself, is just a number without intrinsic value. It only means something when it can actually show off how good you are. Back when console shooters were highly respected - such as Call of Duty 4, Red Dead Redemption, it was a real badge of honor to be at the high prestiges. But when you go for such high levels in a more stigmatized game such as Modern Warfare 3, that coolness factor wears off big time, and that's where you need to realize you need a life. And since it's looking more and more likely by the day that this game is in that "stigma" category, you the season pass purchaser will quickly find out just how much better off you really are reaching max level in a game no one cares about.

I enjoyed the series so far, but it's gotten to the point where I think gamers need a break from the series. I'm definitely not buying Judgement. I think even Epic (silently) acknowledges that the series needs a break by the fact that they outsourced development to People Can Fly, rather than take the game on internally.

all I see here is "pay 20 extra bucks to play the complete game".. seriously wtf... they are already selling 2 "new" gamemodes and maps when the game is not even out yet.. I bet those game modes and maps will be in the disc and they will sell it to us as if they were "new" content.. cmon

@dogfather76 Well, it will all level out. What you may find is some players investing heavily into a few games a year insteand of buying a ton of games.

For example: I bought the 100 edition of Darksiders 2 and Halo 4, but other than that I haven't bought a full priced game in a long time. Because these purchases warrant a lot of gameplay and tons of addons. I am pretty ok with this.

@TudoRapid yeah that was when we thought we were getting more game after we finished it but now they are fucking us .. this game with no dlc has only 4 maps so now their shipping us unfinished products and making us pay extra for our finished product. piracy seems like such a good idea and the way this industry is headed it seems doomed

@slayer1090 The PC-based indie devs will be all that's left after these corporate parasites finally succeed in pissing off their host to the point of another market crash. The death of their business model will be the best thing that ever happened to the industry, too.

@Cl0ud Your comment alone pretty much solidify's you're a high school student with no work experience. Paying more than $60 for a video game is never a good deal by the way, if you made or had any of your own money you would know that by now.

The only "loser" I see in this comment section is you. I haven't scrolled down far enough to find anyone else as blindly leashed as you seem to be. Assuming you aren't some horribly out of practice troll, and actually think this is a good deal, then you sir are what is wrong with the gamers today

That's the new trend. Months before a game comes out, we get bombarded with all the DLC and microtransactions that will follow it. Which leads to this: all this DLC is planned and made before the game goes gold, yet it is left out of the disc so they can sell it later.

@superfly18@dogfather76 I have yet to buy a game since red dead redemption that's worth more than 60 dollars. The concept of buying a game for more than it's worth before you even know it's worth it makes zero sense to me. Just because it restricts what you can buy later doesn't mean you made a smart decision. I notice how you never stated whether or not you think Halo 4 and DS2 were worth those C notes.

I'm becoming more like that to as time goes on. I really consider the amount of gameplay that I will get out of a game before deciding on purchases. While some might not like it, I know that I will be investing a lot of time into Gears, so the 20 dollar season pass is fine for me. Paying 20/30 dollars for the Tomb Raider season pass is a strech though because I really don't see myself playing it much longer than the single player campaign.

@ItsTheSasquatch@slayer1090 It would be great for all the viruses that have infected the industry to be terminated yes, but there's also lots of devs who aren't money hungry monsters. I mean it's a business and the devs are in it for the money, but there are ones who enjoy what they do. I can't see a company like Nintendo perishing the way the others would.

I, and several other people I know who own 360s gave up on GOW after the release of 3. I haven't even finished that one, and have no intention of playing this one. Especially with this news. Stop trying to start problems with your platform bigotry. Grow up, play what you want to play, and don't attempt douchery if you can't at least be witty about it.

@ItsTheSasquatch@slayer1090 Well I believe they have learned and are doing what they can to try and win them back, it's better than lots of devs who just continue down the paths they do despite all the fan reaction and disapproval.

@slayer1090 Nintendo's showing signs that it's on its way out as well. They're trying to blame piracy for poor sales of games for consoles that haven't even been cracked yet, and demanding various nations around the world pass new anti-piracy laws to help them. The reality, which they refuse to face, is that they threw their fanbase under the bus when they decided to cash in on the casual and "non-gamer" market, and they've done nothing to get them back.